Countries and Property Returns

[MABinPengChau]

Is this typical? Can one go out and buy a flat/house in that neighborhood and get 10% net yield? Is it easy to find a tenant, decent area, or is there some downside? And just to be sure, you mean you are getting 10% net based on today's market value and today's rent (and not the original purchase price and today's potentially higher rent?). I should buy a handful of these...

I don't know much about the US market but this seems so much higher than anywhere else I look.

I have gotten a bit lucky but on current prices, I would guess it's at least 8 percent in many lower-cost suburban areas- the rent for single family houses is not that much more than something like a townhouse or condo of comparable square footage. But I may have forgotten to deduct property tax so that is about a month and a half of rent. I think also there are better returns in moderately-priced property markets- still good rents to be made but the cost of property is lower. I have only bought near areas I have lived so I am the last one to tell someone to just jump into a particular market. The close-in areas of Washington DC suburbs are crazy expensive and I would be afraid to lose money with one bad tenant. I pay the management company to screen the tenants as well as manage the property.

One of my properties is in a retirement community so pretty decent tenants to be found, no kids, most with no pets (although my tenant has a small dog), decent people. The other is near a military base and the tenants have been good.

I do think the returns in the US are pretty good because compared to many other places in Asia and Europe, the cost of property is much less expensive especially considering the median income of the renters. I'm still pretty much a novice myself so I don't have much advice- I didn't start out to be a landlord but it's been working out well so considering buying more. This year has been disappointing, everything I have been seeing seems very overpriced so waiting to see what happens after the summer sales season.

Good luck!

[john_1122]

That's a nice list there - have you invested in any of those?

I have invested in most of those. Right now I have a loss of between 1 and 2%, but with the average dividend at 6%, I am not too worried. What do you guys think of HK REITs investment in the short and long term?

I have updated the list with 1881 with 3 September prices. At what price do you reckon is 1881 an interesting investment? I can see hotels taking a serious hit right now, and cut dividends, but they are likely to recover a few months after the protests stop. Right now the dividend is of 8.29%, and the price is back to 2011 levels (though it didn't grow much over the last years, compared to the other REITs.